Advances in technology have resulted in smaller and more powerful computing devices. For example, there currently exist a variety of portable personal computing devices, including wireless computing devices, such as portable wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and paging devices that are small, lightweight, and easily carried by users. More specifically, portable wireless telephones, such as cellular telephones and Internet Protocol (IP) telephones, can communicate voice and data packets over wireless networks. Many such wireless telephones incorporate additional devices to provide enhanced functionality for end users. For example, a wireless telephone can also include a digital still camera, a digital video camera, a digital recorder, and an audio file player. Also, such wireless telephones can execute software applications, such as a web browser application, that can serve to access the Internet. As such, these wireless telephones can include significant computing capabilities.
In some communication systems, communications networks can serve to exchange messages among several interacting spatially-separated devices. Networks can be classified according to geographic scope, which may be, for example, a metropolitan area, a local area, or a personal area. Such networks can be designated respectively as a wide area network (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), or a personal area network (PAN). Networks can also differ according to the switching/routing techniques used to interconnect the various network nodes and devices (e.g., circuit switching vs. packet switching), the type of physical media employed for transmission (e.g., wired vs. wireless), and the set of communication protocols used (e.g., Internet protocol suite, SONET (Synchronous Optical Networking), Ethernet, etc.).
Wireless networks can be preferred when network elements are mobile and have dynamic connectivity needs or if the network architecture is formed in an ad hoc, rather than fixed, topology. Wireless networks can employ intangible physical media in an unguided propagation mode using electromagnetic waves in the radio, microwave, infra-red, optical, or other frequency bands. Wireless networks can advantageously facilitate user mobility and rapid field deployment when compared to fixed wired networks.
Devices in a wireless network can transmit/receive information between each other. The information can include packets. The packets can include overhead information (e.g., header information, packet properties, etc. that helps in routing the packets through the network) as well as data (e.g., user data, multimedia content, etc. in a payload of the packet). One type of packet, called a discovery packet, can serve to introduce two different devices communicating via a medium that is shared by multiple devices.